“To experience so much help when you feel so helpless is just a wonderful thing,” Thomas said in the release.

Over 40 years Thomas has organized more than 100 fundraising events staffed by volunteers. Beneficiaries have included the Crisis Nursery children’s shelter in Phoenix, Wounded Warriors, March of Dimes and United Cerebral Palsy. Last year his golf tournament for the 19 hotshot firefighters who died in the summer fires in northern Arizona raised more than $50,000, reported the release.